If your speedlight has a Fresnel lens on the front end, a piece of gaffer tape over the lens would have cut down the light. I always keep some strips of gaffer tape on light stands, cases, et cetera, for emergency use. An additional diffusion cover for the umbrella would also knock down exposure a stop and be a lot cheaper than adding a black umbrella to your kit. Even two extra diffusion covers.
Yes, this is a given, but these things are cumbersome on set. It would be easier using the Black Dish than fumbling with gaff tape or figuring out how to put more layers of diffusion in front. Keep it simple.
You could also use an ND gel on the strobe or stack a Full CTO and a Full CTB to make an ND filter.. I often forget to play this card, but I should think of it more often.
Yeah, another commenter said the same and I absolutely could, but it would be much easier swapping modifiers than gelling flashes. I do appreciate the stacking suggestion, I definitely have never thought about that, in general. 💪🏾
I 100% agree that this would probably be the only reason I haven't gotten rid of the BlackDish yet. I totally agree with you that ND filters, gaff tape and all that stuff is much more hassle that is completely unnecessary sometimes if you have something like the Blackdish. It really would come in handy for being able to knock down some power, which is an annoying issue sometimes. This vid made me think I made the right decision in keeping it. So thanks!
Adding more diy diffusion to the inside or outside of the softbox could have been an option or hanging a sweater over the middle of the softbox so the light wraps around the sweater or keeping the modifier where it was but feathering it alot woyld have reduced the light hitting the subject. I agree with all that you said, the black dish is a niche modifier vut i would also say its a gimmick unless its being sold for the purposes of reducing the power of the flash for better ambient mix light like you needed. Niche or not, im not spending $250 to throw away 2-3 stops of light. Also, if its a location shoot and you don't have tome to scout the location first, you cannot bring every modifier you own due to the weight and portability, etc so bringing a niche modifier would probably be at the bottom of my list as 90% of the time i need more power not less. Love your videos i just wish they would pop up on my feed more often. I just realised i haven't seen your previous 10 videos. I will definitely xheck them out.
Good and educational approach on tools we used as photographers. Knowing how to get the shot when unforeseen circumstances arise, having the tools to do so and reacting quickly without missing a beat, is what is truly means to be a photographer.
Indeed brotha, indeed! You’ve said it before, all us photographers have tools and knowing when and how to use those tools is crucial to our success as photographers. Keep doin’ what you’re doin’ bro.
Interesting dilemma and I can certainly see where you are coming from. I like to use my Godox AD200 Pro's for the majority of my strobe work because they are my Goldilocks flashes. That is to say they put out more power than my standard flashes but not as much as say my 600W/s monolight. Conveniently they also have a 1/256th power output for the exact scenario you encountered where even a lowest setting on a standard flash still produces more light than you'd like. Be nicer still if they could drop to 1/512th power to really extend that range. You are absolutely right though, simply moving your light further from your subject ( benefitting from the reduced light output by taking advantage of the inverse square rule ) isn't the answer. Sure, you achieve your desired light output but you also change the quality of the light falloff too. You've made your flash light smaller and so made it harsher in the process changing the look completely. I guess the only answer would have been to place a dark gel over the flash head. I dont think I've ever seen such a product, all the photography gels I've seen and used add a colour to the light and in your situation that wasnt desired, you simply wanted to reduce output. I wonder is the movie industry has a solution where you can purchase gels that are made specifically to cut light output without affecting colour temperature? Perhaps taping black cardstock to the front of the flash head with a smaller aperture cut out might have worked as a diy solution. It's interesting that you came across a situation where by a black softbox might have solved your issue however. I must admit when I first saw the black softbox concept I thought to myself, who would ever find a reason to use it, but I guess I got my answer now 😋 Photography is always about balancing everything to get the look we want, the permutations are endless and it also comes down to compromise ultimately. Still, this discussion certainly made me think about myself ever being in a similar situation and how I might tackle it. Come to think about it, as I type this I might have a cheap portable solution! Just buy some thin black material large enough to pin to your largest softbox. Pin it to the large diffused surface and you've effectively cut your light output without having to move your softbox position. Its cheap, lightweight and just folds up easily when not in use. 😉
There are ND gels/sheets available but I don't have any and even if I did, I highly doubt I would have traveled with them. As another comment mentioned, one could put more diffusion in front of the modifier as well. Of course there are almost always ways to achieve what you want, but what I was going with in this video is simplicity. Swapping a modifier would have taken 20 seconds, doing anything else would have taken minutes, which interrupts the flow of the shoot and is much more cumbersome than just swapping a modifier. This isn't directed towards you, but for some reason people seem to interpret this video as me saying the ONLY way to achieve what I wanted was to use the Black Dish, when in reality I simply said this was a case where the Black Dish would have been a good modifier to use in that scenario.
@@AnthonyToglife Yeah, agreed, the black dish would have undoubtedly solved your problem and it's quick to switch out. I do wonder however, given how rare this situation would happen on a shoot would you have taken the black dish to every shoot " just in case " anyway? 😋 I'd be more likely to travel with small ND gels than a relatively large black dish if I owned both. I didn't get the impression from your video that you were suggesting that the black dish was the only solution to use in this scenario even if others thought that. I'm in total agreement with your thought process here, it certainly provides a solution for a problem that I hadn't previously considered. Does that mean I'd purchase a black dish myself? Not personally, but that is because it's rare I cannot reduce my strobe power sufficiently to get the output I need but also because it's clear other solutions exist that would cost less and be easier/smaller to pack with me. Just like the best camera is the one you have with you, likewise the best modifier is also the one you have in your kit bag the day of the shoot 😉 Keep up the good work, your video's always leave me with thought provoking questions regards my own workflow 👍
@@dunnymonster well, considering that I have a Black Dish in my closet, I think there's your answer, LOLOL. In a travel situation, I would almost certainly take gels over the Black Dish, but if I were here in Vegas, I'd bring the Black Dish over the gels. I don't really like using gels, so I'd rather carry an extra modifier over fiddling with gels on location. I'm sure many photographers would feel the opposite. At the price of the Black Dish it would be hard for me to recommend a photographer buy one just for this scenario, but if you already have one, this scenario would be a good time to pull it out. I appreciate your comment. With most of the videos I upload, my hope is that it makes the viewer stop and think. Sometimes it's clear some viewers got hung up on a small nuance versus seeing the bigger picture, but that's just the way it goes.
Rear curtain sync would be pointless here. Rear Curtain Sync doesn't bring your shutter speed down. Slower shutter speeds are typically used with Rear Curtain Sync but it doesn't allow you to use slower shutter speeds. If your subject isn't moving fairly quickly, it's absolutely pointless as there's no advantage to it over First Curtain Sync. You can use slow shutter speeds with First Curtain Sync (normal flash sync mode).
You’re incorrect. Using rear-curtain sync isn’t what’s “necessary” to lower the shutter speed, it would allow me to use a lower shutter speed while freezing the subject. This is a widely-used technique that you can easily Google. It doesn’t take much movement at 1/60 or 1/30 of a second to have motion blur, especially when you pair that with camera shake at that low of shutter speed. Rear-curtain sync absolutely helps eliminate both.
@@AnthonyToglife I'm not, actually. You misunderstood what I said. I never ever said that Rear Curtain Sync is necessary to lower the shutter speed. Read what I said again. I still stand by what I said. Like I said, there's zero advantage to Rear Curtain Sync if your subject isn't moving fairly quickly and there's some artistic vision involved. I shoot at 1/60 in First Curtain Sync all the time and movement is completely frozen - if there's only a little bit or none - as long as the subject isn't moving fairly quickly or I'm not shaking ridiculously (which almost never happens), or there's a good amount of ambient light in the scene compared to the amount of flash.
@@jasonbodden8816 and I never, ever said you did. You said RCS was pointless in that situation and referenced slower shutter speeds, I was saying it isn’t necessary to achieve slower shutter speeds but allows me to shoot at slower shutter speeds while still being able to freeze my subject with the flash. I stand by my original comment.
@@AnthonyToglife And I stand by mine. If there's a ton of ambient light compared to flash in my shot, and there's any kind of real movement, or I'm doing those shots where you shake up the camera and get light trail stuff (and the motion blur trails going in the right direction), I'll use RCS. But if there's little to no movement on my part or the subject's part, it's highly unnecessary *for me* But it's all good. Do you. I think we might be saying the same thing, ultimately. You might just use it sometimes when I don't find it necessary.
@ I use it in low light when I want to use a slower SS to allow the ambient background light to be visible but need to freeze my subject with flash due to the lower SS. That’s it. Obviously I could use FCS if the subject was fairly static and my hands were too, but why when I could just use RCS with no discernible negative side effects?!
You didn’t mention that the main reason for the “Rear Curtain Sync” was for the ambient light, otherwise your explanation is confusing on the use of Rear Curtain Sync versus using any other curtain sync.
Well, the video isn’t about rear-curtain sync so I didn’t see where it was necessary to fully explain it. But I feel the explanation I gave on it was solid in how it related to my use-case.
@@AnthonyToglife I understood what you were getting at, however, I’m sure there are beginning photographers watching your channel, and if you appear confusing, they will not come back to view your channel. The more followers you have on your channel the better, right? Using example photos would also help improve the clarity of your videos, as well. I’m not criticizing, I just want to see your channel grow.
While I appreciate your feedback, I don’t chase followers, and it isn’t feasible to explain every nuance of every thing mentioned in a video. It’s that simple. I could have mentioned high speed sync and there’d be beginners who don’t know what that is, I’m not going to digress for 3 minutes explaining high speed sync on a video that has very little to do with that. If my style of video doesn’t suit you (or anyone else), I’m okay with anyone choosing not to watch my videos or to not subscribe to my channel. No video will please everyone, and I’ve long been okay with that.
Man, you are 100% correct -- and I think having that "special" modifier matters. Probably won't use it much - but when you need it, it's a true difference maker. Within the last year, I finally added two special modifiers: The Angler ParaSail Parabolic , 88". Looks funny, but the unque shape can throw some really good, soft light over an entire subject. You have to have it fairly close to the person (with no sides to it) but wow - what a difference it makes. The other is the 7' Impact Improved Parabolic Umbrella - with the added outer difuser. HUGE modifier, but you can stand in front of it and still get great lighting. As is the case with the Black Dish - these aren't modifiers we use often -- true; but the example you mentioned in Louisville only speaks to the fact that there will be times the "righ" modifier could make all the difference. Sure - when you don't have it with you, the shot can still be gotten, but just not in the way you envisioned it. Great video -- great topic!
So true my friend, so true! I like to always say, you can drive a nail with a screwdriver but it’s much more efficient to use a hammer. Modifiers are no different, any modifier can work but sometimes you need that right modifier. I always appreciate your perspective and insight! 🙏🏾
And didn't let me come to narry a shoot....Ya'll welcome back anytime though!
We’ll be back this summer!
If your speedlight has a Fresnel lens on the front end, a piece of gaffer tape over the lens would have cut down the light. I always keep some strips of gaffer tape on light stands, cases, et cetera, for emergency use. An additional diffusion cover for the umbrella would also knock down exposure a stop and be a lot cheaper than adding a black umbrella to your kit. Even two extra diffusion covers.
Yes, this is a given, but these things are cumbersome on set. It would be easier using the Black Dish than fumbling with gaff tape or figuring out how to put more layers of diffusion in front. Keep it simple.
You could also use an ND gel on the strobe or stack a Full CTO and a Full CTB to make an ND filter.. I often forget to play this card, but I should think of it more often.
Yeah, another commenter said the same and I absolutely could, but it would be much easier swapping modifiers than gelling flashes. I do appreciate the stacking suggestion, I definitely have never thought about that, in general. 💪🏾
I 100% agree that this would probably be the only reason I haven't gotten rid of the BlackDish yet. I totally agree with you that ND filters, gaff tape and all that stuff is much more hassle that is completely unnecessary sometimes if you have something like the Blackdish. It really would come in handy for being able to knock down some power, which is an annoying issue sometimes. This vid made me think I made the right decision in keeping it. So thanks!
@@jasonbodden8816 yeah G, tools, right?! These days I don’t feel like doing anything more that what’s absolutely necessary 😂😂
@ I hear that!! 😂
Awesome video!
Thank you Agnetha!
Adding more diy diffusion to the inside or outside of the softbox could have been an option or hanging a sweater over the middle of the softbox so the light wraps around the sweater or keeping the modifier where it was but feathering it alot woyld have reduced the light hitting the subject.
I agree with all that you said, the black dish is a niche modifier vut i would also say its a gimmick unless its being sold for the purposes of reducing the power of the flash for better ambient mix light like you needed. Niche or not, im not spending $250 to throw away 2-3 stops of light. Also, if its a location shoot and you don't have tome to scout the location first, you cannot bring every modifier you own due to the weight and portability, etc so bringing a niche modifier would probably be at the bottom of my list as 90% of the time i need more power not less.
Love your videos i just wish they would pop up on my feed more often. I just realised i haven't seen your previous 10 videos. I will definitely xheck them out.
Yes, of course there are other options @YogaLifeEtc, but they all would require more work than just using the Blackdish.
Welp, the professor has spoken!
💪🏾
Good and educational approach on tools we used as photographers. Knowing how to get the shot when unforeseen circumstances arise, having the tools to do so and reacting quickly without missing a beat, is what is truly means to be a photographer.
Indeed brotha, indeed! You’ve said it before, all us photographers have tools and knowing when and how to use those tools is crucial to our success as photographers. Keep doin’ what you’re doin’ bro.
Interesting dilemma and I can certainly see where you are coming from.
I like to use my Godox AD200 Pro's for the majority of my strobe work because they are my Goldilocks flashes. That is to say they put out more power than my standard flashes but not as much as say my 600W/s monolight. Conveniently they also have a 1/256th power output for the exact scenario you encountered where even a lowest setting on a standard flash still produces more light than you'd like. Be nicer still if they could drop to 1/512th power to really extend that range.
You are absolutely right though, simply moving your light further from your subject ( benefitting from the reduced light output by taking advantage of the inverse square rule ) isn't the answer. Sure, you achieve your desired light output but you also change the quality of the light falloff too. You've made your flash light smaller and so made it harsher in the process changing the look completely.
I guess the only answer would have been to place a dark gel over the flash head. I dont think I've ever seen such a product, all the photography gels I've seen and used add a colour to the light and in your situation that wasnt desired, you simply wanted to reduce output. I wonder is the movie industry has a solution where you can purchase gels that are made specifically to cut light output without affecting colour temperature?
Perhaps taping black cardstock to the front of the flash head with a smaller aperture cut out might have worked as a diy solution.
It's interesting that you came across a situation where by a black softbox might have solved your issue however. I must admit when I first saw the black softbox concept I thought to myself, who would ever find a reason to use it, but I guess I got my answer now 😋
Photography is always about balancing everything to get the look we want, the permutations are endless and it also comes down to compromise ultimately. Still, this discussion certainly made me think about myself ever being in a similar situation and how I might tackle it. Come to think about it, as I type this I might have a cheap portable solution! Just buy some thin black material large enough to pin to your largest softbox. Pin it to the large diffused surface and you've effectively cut your light output without having to move your softbox position. Its cheap, lightweight and just folds up easily when not in use. 😉
There are ND gels/sheets available but I don't have any and even if I did, I highly doubt I would have traveled with them. As another comment mentioned, one could put more diffusion in front of the modifier as well. Of course there are almost always ways to achieve what you want, but what I was going with in this video is simplicity. Swapping a modifier would have taken 20 seconds, doing anything else would have taken minutes, which interrupts the flow of the shoot and is much more cumbersome than just swapping a modifier. This isn't directed towards you, but for some reason people seem to interpret this video as me saying the ONLY way to achieve what I wanted was to use the Black Dish, when in reality I simply said this was a case where the Black Dish would have been a good modifier to use in that scenario.
@@AnthonyToglife Yeah, agreed, the black dish would have undoubtedly solved your problem and it's quick to switch out. I do wonder however, given how rare this situation would happen on a shoot would you have taken the black dish to every shoot " just in case " anyway? 😋 I'd be more likely to travel with small ND gels than a relatively large black dish if I owned both.
I didn't get the impression from your video that you were suggesting that the black dish was the only solution to use in this scenario even if others thought that. I'm in total agreement with your thought process here, it certainly provides a solution for a problem that I hadn't previously considered. Does that mean I'd purchase a black dish myself? Not personally, but that is because it's rare I cannot reduce my strobe power sufficiently to get the output I need but also because it's clear other solutions exist that would cost less and be easier/smaller to pack with me. Just like the best camera is the one you have with you, likewise the best modifier is also the one you have in your kit bag the day of the shoot 😉 Keep up the good work, your video's always leave me with thought provoking questions regards my own workflow 👍
@@dunnymonster well, considering that I have a Black Dish in my closet, I think there's your answer, LOLOL. In a travel situation, I would almost certainly take gels over the Black Dish, but if I were here in Vegas, I'd bring the Black Dish over the gels. I don't really like using gels, so I'd rather carry an extra modifier over fiddling with gels on location. I'm sure many photographers would feel the opposite.
At the price of the Black Dish it would be hard for me to recommend a photographer buy one just for this scenario, but if you already have one, this scenario would be a good time to pull it out.
I appreciate your comment. With most of the videos I upload, my hope is that it makes the viewer stop and think. Sometimes it's clear some viewers got hung up on a small nuance versus seeing the bigger picture, but that's just the way it goes.
Rear curtain sync would be pointless here. Rear Curtain Sync doesn't bring your shutter speed down. Slower shutter speeds are typically used with Rear Curtain Sync but it doesn't allow you to use slower shutter speeds. If your subject isn't moving fairly quickly, it's absolutely pointless as there's no advantage to it over First Curtain Sync. You can use slow shutter speeds with First Curtain Sync (normal flash sync mode).
You’re incorrect. Using rear-curtain sync isn’t what’s “necessary” to lower the shutter speed, it would allow me to use a lower shutter speed while freezing the subject. This is a widely-used technique that you can easily Google. It doesn’t take much movement at 1/60 or 1/30 of a second to have motion blur, especially when you pair that with camera shake at that low of shutter speed. Rear-curtain sync absolutely helps eliminate both.
@@AnthonyToglife I'm not, actually. You misunderstood what I said. I never ever said that Rear Curtain Sync is necessary to lower the shutter speed. Read what I said again. I still stand by what I said. Like I said, there's zero advantage to Rear Curtain Sync if your subject isn't moving fairly quickly and there's some artistic vision involved. I shoot at 1/60 in First Curtain Sync all the time and movement is completely frozen - if there's only a little bit or none - as long as the subject isn't moving fairly quickly or I'm not shaking ridiculously (which almost never happens), or there's a good amount of ambient light in the scene compared to the amount of flash.
@@jasonbodden8816 and I never, ever said you did. You said RCS was pointless in that situation and referenced slower shutter speeds, I was saying it isn’t necessary to achieve slower shutter speeds but allows me to shoot at slower shutter speeds while still being able to freeze my subject with the flash. I stand by my original comment.
@@AnthonyToglife And I stand by mine. If there's a ton of ambient light compared to flash in my shot, and there's any kind of real movement, or I'm doing those shots where you shake up the camera and get light trail stuff (and the motion blur trails going in the right direction), I'll use RCS. But if there's little to no movement on my part or the subject's part, it's highly unnecessary *for me* But it's all good. Do you. I think we might be saying the same thing, ultimately. You might just use it sometimes when I don't find it necessary.
@ I use it in low light when I want to use a slower SS to allow the ambient background light to be visible but need to freeze my subject with flash due to the lower SS. That’s it. Obviously I could use FCS if the subject was fairly static and my hands were too, but why when I could just use RCS with no discernible negative side effects?!
You didn’t mention that the main reason for the “Rear Curtain Sync” was for the ambient light, otherwise your explanation is confusing on the use of Rear Curtain Sync versus using any other curtain sync.
Well, the video isn’t about rear-curtain sync so I didn’t see where it was necessary to fully explain it. But I feel the explanation I gave on it was solid in how it related to my use-case.
@@AnthonyToglife I understood what you were getting at, however, I’m sure there are beginning photographers watching your channel, and if you appear confusing, they will not come back to view your channel. The more followers you have on your channel the better, right? Using example photos would also help improve the clarity of your videos, as well. I’m not criticizing, I just want to see your channel grow.
While I appreciate your feedback, I don’t chase followers, and it isn’t feasible to explain every nuance of every thing mentioned in a video. It’s that simple. I could have mentioned high speed sync and there’d be beginners who don’t know what that is, I’m not going to digress for 3 minutes explaining high speed sync on a video that has very little to do with that. If my style of video doesn’t suit you (or anyone else), I’m okay with anyone choosing not to watch my videos or to not subscribe to my channel. No video will please everyone, and I’ve long been okay with that.
@@AnthonyToglife Got it, moving on.
🙌
💪🏾
Man, you are 100% correct -- and I think having that "special" modifier matters. Probably won't use it much - but when you need it, it's a true difference maker. Within the last year, I finally added two special modifiers: The Angler ParaSail Parabolic , 88". Looks funny, but the unque shape can throw some really good, soft light over an entire subject. You have to have it fairly close to the person (with no sides to it) but wow - what a difference it makes. The other is the 7' Impact Improved Parabolic Umbrella - with the added outer difuser. HUGE modifier, but you can stand in front of it and still get great lighting.
As is the case with the Black Dish - these aren't modifiers we use often -- true; but the example you mentioned in Louisville only speaks to the fact that there will be times the "righ" modifier could make all the difference. Sure - when you don't have it with you, the shot can still be gotten, but just not in the way you envisioned it. Great video -- great topic!
So true my friend, so true! I like to always say, you can drive a nail with a screwdriver but it’s much more efficient to use a hammer. Modifiers are no different, any modifier can work but sometimes you need that right modifier.
I always appreciate your perspective and insight! 🙏🏾